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Ben-Gvir breaks up ‘terror summit’ at eastern Jerusalem school

“What Ben-Gvir did yesterday is an important step in the battle against the PA and the culture of incitement,” Maor Tzemach, chair of NGO Your Jerusalem, told World Israel News.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered the Israeli police to break up a meeting of parents at an eastern Jerusalem school on Saturday, which he referred to as a “terror summit.”

In a media statement, Ben-Gvir said that the meeting had been organized by the Palestinian Authority, in direct violation of an Oslo Accords-era law that forbids the PA from influencing any elements of public life in Israel’s capital city.

Speaking to left-wing daily Ha’aretz, the parents claimed that the meeting had not been organized by the PA, and that forcibly dispersing the meeting was unjustified.

Israeli police said in a statement that locals hurled rocks at them while they broke up the meeting, forcing them to respond with “riot dispersal” measures.

“What Ben-Gvir did yesterday is an important step in the battle against the PA and the culture of incitement in eastern Jerusalem schools,” Maor Tzemach, chair of NGO Your Jerusalem, told World Israel News.

“There’s a serious battle in the eastern Jerusalem educational system, about whether Israel will control what’s being taught in those schools, [ensuring] that they’re not indoctrination centers for anti-Israel propaganda, or if those schools will be mouthpieces for PA anti-Israel incitement.

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Whether the meetings are organized by the PA or by the parents, Tzemach said, it’s critical to disrupt the promotion of anti-Israel materials in eastern Jerusalem schools.

He noted that under the Oslo Accords, the PA legally has no jurisdiction over any services in eastern Jerusalem, including the Arabic-language educational system.

However, the PA has repeatedly violated this agreement, including by providing funding to schools and pushing its own curriculum and materials.

Tzemach explained that the law banning the PA from influencing Jerusalem schools, cultural centers, and other venues of public life is essentially toothless, because the law does not include punitive measures.

“Whoever violates this law is not subject to any legal consequences,” he said.

“We at Your Jerusalem filed a request to amend this law, so that violators will receive a fine or prison time.”